May 5, 1971

Shamsuddoza Sajen

AWAMI LEAGUE ACCUSED

The Pakistani government said today that news of slaughter carried out by Awami League members in East Pakistan before March 25 “has been kept strictly secret for fear of reprisals in West Pakistan”.

An official statement said “thousands of bodies have so far been found in Chittagong and Khulna alone”. It added that “a large number of casualties” has also been reported from three other areas.

The eight‐page statement recapitulated the official government version of the East Pakistan crisis.

‘WAR WITH INDIA POSSIBLE’

The chief of Pakistan’s military intelligence service portrayed his nation today as facing large Indian military forces along the frontiers and said he could not discount the possibility of war.

Maj Gen Mohammad Akbar Khan told a group of foreign news correspondents that India had moved two and a half divisions of men (a division has about 30,000 men), mountain and airborne brigades, fighter, bomber and air transport units and her navy to supplement Indian forces already close to Pakistan’s border.

He said with the Indian Army’s regular strength around East Pakistan’s borders, India’s total army strength there was more than five divisions with a sixth in readiness nearby.